Who would be a football manager? A statistical analysis.

Who would be a football manager?

I thought I’d answer this age old question by collating some statistics and charts based on the current managers of all 90 Premier League and Football League clubs who have managers at this moment in time. I’m fully aware that this article is likely to be out of date as soon as its written, but I’d like to think that it gives a good indication as to the current trends and facts about football managers in our leagues today.

AGE

It’s perhaps unsurprising that the more experienced managers are to be found in the top flight. Though Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp’s ages bring the average up considerably for the Premier League as they are the two oldest managers of all four divisions.

Oldest

Premier League: Alex Ferguson – Manchester United – 71
Championship: Neil Warnock – Leeds United – 64
League One: Graham Turner – Shrewsbury Town – 65
League Two: John Still – Dagenham & Redbridge – 62

Youngest

Premier League: André Villas-Boas – Tottenham Hotspur – 35
Championship: Michael Appleton – Blackburn Rovers  – 37
League One: Karl Robinson – Milton Keynes*  – 32
League Two: Leam Richardson – Accrington Stanley – 32

 NATIONALITY

[iframe width=”550″ height=”837″ src=”http://infogr.am/Managers-in-the-Premier-League-and-Football-League” ]
The above interactive chart shows another unsurprising fact. There are more foreigners plying their trade as football managers in the top flight than in the lower echelons of the football pyramid. Of the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs there are 53 Englishmen, 12 Scotsmen, 4 Welsh and 3 Northern Irishmen.

FIRST NAME

[iframe src=”http://infogr.am/Names-of-managers” width=”550″ height=”617″]

Steve is the most popular name for a football manager in the top four flights of the football pyramid. Steve Bruce (Hull City), Steve Clarke (West Brom), Steve Evans (Rotherham United), Steve Thompson (Blackpool) and Steve Davis (Crewe Alexandra). There is only one Gus.

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Chris Coleman appointed as new manager of Wales

Chris Coleman has been appointed the new manager of the Welsh national team.

An odd fact associated to the appointment of Chris Coleman is that in March 1994 Wales played Norway in an friendly at Ninian Park. It was the solitary game in John Toshack’s first spell as Welsh manager (a spell that lasted for little more than a few weeks). The team that day featured Chris Coleman, Neville Southall, Mark Hughes and Gary Speed. There can’t be many matches that involve five people who would one day go on to manage their country (in John Toshack’s case, for the second time, while Neville Southall managed Wales against Denmark in a caretaker role during the late 90s).

Four future Welsh managers in the starting line-up (Southall, Speed, Hughes and Coleman), one managing from the bench

I have no idea whether Chris Coleman is a good appointment or not. I can’t say I was particularly excited by Gary Speed when he was first appointed to the post (I was shown to be spectacularly wrong on that score). However, Coleman has a remarkably tough act to follow in Gary Speed as the form of the Welsh national side throughout 2011 was nothing short of sensational. Despite seeing Wales win a good number of games in the past I’ve never seen them brush aside teams of the quality of Montenegro, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Norway. It really did feel like the start of something special. I hope Chris can continue that good work.

Hat tip to Ian Hamer for pointing out that Neville Southall managed Wales in a caretaker capacity against Denmark in 1999.